Apartment Sale Smashes Suburb Record by $300,000

An apartment at developer Aland’s $800-million Gladstone Village development in Sydney’s Merrylands has been sold for $1.1 million, smashing the suburb’s previous record by more than $300,000. 

The 240sq m apartment—comprising three bedrooms, two bathrooms and two parking spaces—was picked up by a 25-year-old first-home buyer from the area.

The sale price tops the previous record for the suburb of $795,000 for a three-bedroom townhouse, which was set in March.

Privately owned Aland began construction on the first stage of the 365 apartment project, being built across a 2.5ha site at 224-240 Pitt Street, this year with completion earmarked for the second half of 2023.

It is a short walk to the Merrylands train station and bus interchange as well as Stockland Merrylands, which includes more than 200 specialty stores.

The masterplanned precinct’s first stage, which includes three buildings up to 20 storeys, offers studio plus one, two and three-bedroom apartments.

Further stages will deliver about 800 residential apartments with a rooftop pool and gardens. 

The remainder of development is to undergo planning with current controls allowing for a mix of retail, residential and commercial surrounding 5000sq m of internal parkland and another 6000sq m of open space.

Aland chief executive George Tadrosse said 150 units had been sold as part of the project’s first stage.

“There is a tremendous amount of pent-up pressure in the Sydney apartment market and due to planning delays, as well as material and labour shortages, there are not enough new apartments coming on to the market to meet demand,” Tadrosse said.

“Fortunately, [we] are well-placed to deliver the much-needed stock for western Sydney in the timeframe buyers are wanting it. 

“Merrylands is an attractive suburb to investors because it is only a short distance to Parramatta CBD and this is the first development of its kind in the suburb.”

▲ The masterplanned project will offer affordable high-end apartments close to the Parramatta City region.

Tadrosse said the project had become a rare offering for Merrylands as it was in one of the last vacant pockets on Sydney’s rail network.

Merrylands, 25km west of the Sydney CBD, has been fairly underdeveloped for apartments but that has been changing in recent years after Stockland constructed 550 apartments next to Merrylands Shopping Centre.

Aland bought the Pitt Street site in late 2021 for $75 million from receivers of companies in the Dyldam Group.

The site was one of eight repossessed by receivers from McGrathNicol in early 2021 on behalf of private lenders after administrators took charge of 22 companies in the wider Dyldam Group in late 2020.

It was set to be the staging for one of Dyldam’s biggest projects after the developer obtained approval in 2018 for an $800-million development of 1200 apartments across three towers known as The Opera.

Aland has more than 1200 apartments being built in Sydney’s west and is developing a 47-level apartment tower in Parramatta.

According to Tadrosse, that project achieved a 54 per cent uplift in purchases by investors during the past three months, signalling the heightened demand for quality and affordable apartments in Western Sydney.

The project, at 14-20 Parkes Street, similarly offers a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments across a 39-level building, along with a resort-inspired pool with a 300sq m terrace and barbecue area.

Construction is well under way on the project and completion is also slated for late 2023.

“There would be very little stock coming on to the unit market over the next 24 months and that was largely due to increased government red tape and increased demand from several buyer types,” Tadrosse said.

“Demand for units is high as rising interest rates encourage domestic buyers to shift their focus to the apartment market.”

Tadrosse said the developer’s units had continued to clock up an average yield of 4.9 per cent when compared with Sydney’s average yield of 4.1 per cent. 

“These impressive yields, combined with data showing Sydney apartment rents are rising, means it’s the ideal time to secure new property.”